Toluu : Boxes and Arrows

Boxes and Arrows

Stories from Boxes and Arrows

Illustrations by Leah Buley

If you design user experiences for standards-based websites and applications (i.e. those built with XHTML, CSS, and JavaScript), there are several great reasons for adding XHTML prototyping to your UX tool kit. Perhaps you’ve found that traditional wireframes just aren’t sufficient and are looking for more powerful ways to explore and communicate design solutions. Perhaps your current practice is based on the traditional waterfall model (i.e. first creating wireframes, which are handed off to creative, who hand off comps to tech, and so forth), and you want to explore more contemporary methodologies, such as agile and iterative development. Regardless, a great way to embark on that journey is to start prototyping with XHTML.

So what does it mean to prototype with XHTML? Essentially, it’s the process of using the XHTML itself, and related technologies, to evolve and define your design solution. And what does an XHTML prototype look like? While, as we’ll see, that depends on where you are in your prototyping process, an XHTML prototype generally looks like any other web page built with XHTML, with some links or features perhaps being non-functional. In other words, anything you can build with XHTML, from consumer websites to enterprise applications, you can also prototype with XHTML

IDEA 2008October 17

The “IDEA Conference”:http://ideaconference.org/index.html took place in Chicago on October 7-9 at the Harold Washington Library Center.

The speakers pushed the boundaries of what it means to design complex information spaces of all kinds. We can all expand our practice by absorbing their experiences and ideas. In cooperation with the “IA Institute”:http://www.iainstitute.org/, we’re happy to bring you recordings of most conference talks. We hope you enjoy listening to nearly the entire conference via these recordings.

This conference addressed issues of design for an always-on, always-connected world. Where “cyberspace” is a meaningless term because the online and offline worlds cannot be made distinct. Where physical spaces are so complex that detailed wayfinding is necessary to navigate them. Where work processes have become so involved, and so digitized, that we need new processes to manage those processes.

—from the “IDEA Vision Statement”:http://ideaconference.org/index.html

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Getting a Form's Structure Right: Designing Usable Online Email ApplicationsSeptember 18

I started writing this article with an emphasis on the financial domain. I then realized that I would like to broaden the focus because my findings are also applicable to a general domain like email account registrations, for example. In this article, I would like to take a simple example of how users register for an email account online. For a first timer, is the transition from a real world of letter writing to the online medium easy? And for a frequent user, is he or she motivated enough to create an email account with another service provider?

Yes, this is for all of you out there—my fellow usability practitioners, information architects, designers, managers, project leads, editors, and people who are looking to develop their UX practice.

In the modern family, where often both parents are working full-time and the children are involved in many after-school activities, people may only have a few minutes to spare on an important task during the day. And it’s the Internet that supposedly helps people achieve this. But do we, as designers and usability practitioners, always help them do it? I say, “No.”

Just the other day, a friend of mine begins to complain of the spam mails that she receives everyday. “I have two separate email ID’s to keep myself away from such mails—one for official purposes and the other for my junk emails. But even my official ID seems to be flooded with these emails. So I found myself moving to another email service p

Quick Turnaround Usability TestingSeptember 18

It starts with any number of scenarios: Design and development have taken too long to produce a prototype, you need to release in three weeks, and you suspect there may be design flaws. You are trying to incorporate usability testing into an Agile development process. Or maybe you simply want to pare down your process to make it shorter and less expensive.

Completing usability testing quickly is a challenge anywhere but especially in consultancies, which have to overcome additional challenges, such as learning a new application. To assure success on these projects, I’ve developed a quick turnaround usability testing methodology (QTUT) that minimizes the time needed to complete testing. In Part I of this article, I discuss how to make the first three steps of QTUT—Sales & Kickoff, Recruitment, and Preparation—as short and efficient as possible. In Part II, I will discuss the final two steps: Testing and Analysis & Reporting.

Steps in the QTUT Process

Step 1: Sales & Kickoff
Step 2: Recruitment
Step 3: Preparation
Step 4: Testing
Step 5: Analysis & Reporting

Sales & Kickoff

A new client or a group within your company has approached you about doing usability testing. They need the results next week, which works out to six business days from today. What should you do?

Before a project kicks off, we typically have a number of discussions with the client to understand th

Information Architecture for Audio: Doing It RightSeptember 12

Content today is increasingly delivered by audio both online and in the real world. We have radio shows and newscasts, and in recent years, podcasts, audio books and navigation/car assistance systems have been added to the field. Audio is more emotional, as sound effects and acoustic atmosphere enhance content to help deliver its messages. It also affords users the opportunity to interact with content while their hands and eyes are busy (i.e. when doing physical work, driving, walking, etc).

However, the inclusion of audio often results in usability issues that make it difficult for users to access and understand content. That is why we need new tools to organize linear content like audio. Luckily, a wide range of techniques employed in information architecture, journalism, usability engineering and interface design are available. All that’s required is the knowledge to combine them effectively. This article presents a practical framework for designing and implementing audio-based content, such as podcasts.

“There is no reason to over-estimate the importance of writing and thereby under-estimate other technologies of information processing.” Harald Haarmann in History of Writing.

The Problem with Audio

When using audio today, we face challenges similar to those of written text about a decade ago. During this time, information was being transferred from hand-held documents to the computer screen, without b